Rice in the brass tumbler

[Thin Man]

Hey - NavyVet1959... I have (had) the same problem you described for a runaway tumbler. I cured that with a small square of carpet with the rubber backing on it. Take a carpet piece large enough to fit completely under the base of the tumbler plus a few inches for insurance, but not so large that it gets in your way when walking around it. Place the tumbler on it and it will stand in place until you shut it off. Enjoy.

[Soundguy]

to protect my good treated media, i use a hopper of plain rice on all range pickup. it cleans well enough, and when it is sand contaminated.. I can toss it without much $ loss.

[HangFireW8]

Rice is too large, as HeavyMetal noted it packs in smaller bottleneck cases, and in flash holes. It'll do in a pinch, but you'll soon tire of unpacking stuffed cases. If you have to use it, drying it and cracking it might be in order, but cracked rice won't last as long, so may not be worth the effort.

Ancesthntr gets everything right about dry tumbling, as Russel Nash adds you can put mineral spirits in to reduce dust, no reason you can't use both mineral spirits and Nu-Finish both.

But I have moved on, since my big vibratory died, and getting a most excellent gift of a Thumbler's Model B, to which I add a squirt of Dawn and a dash of Nu-Finish. The quiet gives me the ability to work in the same room, which is priceless. But vibratory cleaning served me well for decades, just had to get in the habit of turning it on while I wasn't going to be around, so I can't put it down, it does work.

[Soundguy]

I shoot 218 bee.. That's a pretty small bottlenecked case.

I've been doing the rice thing for years. Have yet to ever have a packed case.

Once in a blue moon something finds a primer hole, but its usually a bit of cob media broken down, in ant case, decap pushes it out.

[woodbutcher]

Around my house,the only place that rice goes is in the cook pot and then onto my plate.Anything else is a waste of food.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

[Duckiller]

I wouldn't eat the rice! Broken shells or hard animal bedding works great to clean brass. Small allen wrench will clean primer holes.

[NavyVet1959]

Around my house,the only place that rice goes is in the cook pot and then onto my plate.Anything else is a waste of food.
Good luck.Have fun.Be safe.
Leo

Then cook it and give it to the dog... Mix some used cooking oil and salt in it and a dog will eat *anything*. Of if you think that it might be detrimental to your dog, then mix it with some anti-freeze and give it to the neighbor cat-lady's herd of feline vermin.

I see rice at the restaurant supply stores for around $15 per 50 lb bag. That's cheaper than dog food. I noticed quite a few people giving away multiple gallons of used peanut oil after Turkey Day. Apparently they did a fried turkey for the holiday and don't do enough deep frying throughout the rest of the year to keep it and reuse it.

I just got through fixing some mashed potatoes for dinner and had a large container of potato skins. I put them in a pot with some used deep fry oil and some salt and let them cook for awhile, periodically stirring them. Put it out for the dog and it was gone in no time.

[tmc-okc]

Sorry NavyVet---- but those deep fried and garlic salted potato skins ( with a sprikling of black pepper ) go in my mouth. Dang dogs will just have to find something else to eat.. lol

[shdwlkr]

something else you can do to keep media from getting all gunked up is take a paper towel and tear it up and put in the media, you don't need dryer sheets. Did that for many years and it kept my media useful. Being cheap I always used to look for the cheapest way to get something done. YMMV

[hornet112]

Throw away you tumbler and buy a wet tumbling system 50 or 350 rounds SS can't be beat.

[HCH]

I've used rice with good results on straightwall cases. Not so much on bottlenecks.

[Bama]

+1 for Nu Finish, really cleans the powder stained necks

[Echo]

Generally use ground corn cobs OR ground walnut shells, whatever I have, and add a dollop of mineral spirits and about a teaspoon of jeweler's rouge. I bought a packet of JR several years ago, and am still using from that packet - it doesn't take much. Put both in a fresh batch of media and run for about 20-30 minutes to distribute. Have to replace the dollop of MS sometime, but the JR lasts the life of the media. And also put in a used dryer sheet, removing when it looks like it has done as much as it can...

[detox]

Finer grit corn cob media will not get stuck in flash holes. I also like adding a little mineral spirits to vibratory for better case cleaning.

[Larry Gibson]

I've been using rice for probably 45 years in a Thumbler M-B and a couple vibrators that gave up the ghost. I use the cheapest long stemmed rice available at oriental stores. I don't worry about throwing it away after it gets used quite a bit. I've tried most all the other media along the way and keep going back to rice because it works quite well.

The only time I had any problems with it compacting in cases was when I added a liquid "cleaner" and didn't let it dry sufficiently. I clean cases from 22 Hornet up through 45-70 w/o problems. Sometimes with 223s I separated the rice and then put the cases back in the thumbler/vibrator for a minute and it gets the rest out of the cases.

Here is some 7.62x54R still in the sifter cleaned in rice, as you can see it does a nice job.

Attachment 210955

[Soundguy]

Same results I've seen.